Movie Reviews

Longtime friends Daveed Diggs (left) and Rafael Casal co-wrote and co-star in the film Blindspotting.

Arts

Oakland Gets A Starring Role In 2 Genre-Busting Films About Race And Inequality

12:54pm July 20, 2018

by Justin Chang

Critic Justin Chang says the city is experiencing a renaissance moment in film. Blindspotting and Sorry to Bother You are just two of the latest — both about young black men on quests for survival.

Business Needs A Lyft, Crooks To Be Erased: The gig economy catches up with McCall (Denzel Washington) as he sets out to make things equal in the sequel.

Arts

Denzel Has No Fury Like 'The Equalizer 2'

5:01pm July 19, 2018

by Chris Klimek

Despite the lazy cliché that triggers its plot, The Equalizer 2 is a "reasonably well-written and (of course) beautifully acted serving of geriatric-virility violence porn." If that's your thing.

In Generation Wealth, documentarian Lauren Greenfield profiles the obscenely wealthy and revisits several people she photographed in the 1990s for a book on L.A. youth culture, like those seen here.

Arts

'Generation Wealth' Offers Scattershot Glimpses Of Cultural Decadence

5:01pm July 19, 2018

by Scott Tobias

Photographer/documentarian Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles) offers many examples of excessive wealth around the globe, but the resulting portrait lacks a clear point of view.

L to R: Jack and Bob Allnutt are featured in Rachel Dretzin's Far From The Tree.

Arts

Parents Just Don't Understand: 'Far From The Tree' Profiles Kids Who Confound Expectations

5:01pm July 19, 2018

by Mark Jenkins

Rachel Dretzin's sometimes poignant film, inspired by Andrew Solomon's book, takes a narrowly focused look at kids who turned out differently than their parents thought they would.

Electric Waterloo: (L to R) Young Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn), Young Donna (Lily James) and Young Rosie (Alexa Davies) feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah, in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

ABBA Silver: 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'

12:17pm July 19, 2018

by Glen Weldon

Return with us now to the enchanted isle of Kalokairi, where the sun shines, the water gleams and the populace is unnervingly obsessed with '70s Swedish power-pop — albeit the B-sides, this time out.

'Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind' Explores Comic's Creative Life

5:48pm July 15, 2018

by Eric Deggans

A new documentary, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, airs Monday on HBO. It aims to bring the viewer into his mind to see how he saw the world and the challenges he struggled with.

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In 'What Will People Say' A Norwegian Teenager Must Navigate A Clash Of Cultures

4:34pm July 13, 2018

by Bob Mondello

Immigration, culture clashes and divided families are all part of the cultural conversation in What Will People Say. Filmmaker Iram Haq based this story on her own experience as a young woman in Norway.

If You're Familiar With Bo Burnham's Humor, 'Eighth Grade' Will Surprise You

5:01pm July 12, 2018

by Bob Mondello

YouTube star Bo Burnham is mostly known for the rapid-fire comic videos he started making as a teenager. Now 27, he has an impressively diverse resume that now includes movie director asEighth Grade, a film from about the moment when adolescence kicks in debuts.

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Dark Money shadows Montana journalist John Adams as he uncovers the influence of untraceable corporate money on the electoral process.

Arts

Riveting Documentary Sheds Light On 'Dark Money' In Montana Politics

5:00pm July 12, 2018

by Ella Taylor

"If 98 movie minutes about the subversion of campaign financing isn't quite your idea of beating the summer heat," says critic Ella Taylor, "there's not a dull or dry moment" in this incisive doc.

Elsie Fisher plays Kayla, a teenager voted the "most quiet" girl in her class, in the film, Eighth Grade.

Arts

'Eighth Grade' Captures Awkwardness And Impermanence Of American Adolescence

5:00pm July 12, 2018

by Justin Chang

Elsie Fisher stars as a teenage girl about to graduate from middle school in Bo Burnham's new film. Critic Justin Chang calls Eighth Grade an "enormously affecting" film that plays like a documentary.